2016-12-10T03:10:56ZA review of the MITR-II basis accidenthttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104158
A review of the MITR-II basis accident
McCauley, John Jay
Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1982.; MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE; Includes bibliographical references.
1982-01-01T00:00:00ZScenario modeling for feasibility assessment of nuclear power plant construction projectshttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103714
Scenario modeling for feasibility assessment of nuclear power plant construction projects
Biegel, Kathryn E
In historical and current experience, the economics of nuclear power have proven to be problematic for utility companies. Construction costs and schedules have proven to be highly unpredictable, with the average reactor construction project costing two to three times more than its initial budget and taking almost twice as long to complete as expected. The causes of this phenomenon have not been well-characterized, even two decades after the last new reactor was brought online in 1996. Scenario generation can provide useful information about the economic viability of nuclear construction projects over a variety of parameter spaces without having to make prescriptive assertions about likely single values for delay and other difficult-to-predict parameters. The MEERKAT model creates scenarios over two different reactor types (Westinghouse AP1000 and NuScale SMR plant); three delay cases (optimistic, median, and pessimistic based on historical data); and six different utility company credit ratings (which translate into varying costs of capital). MEERKAT outputs the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for each scenario and compares them to average electricity prices for a number of regions in the United States. These scenarios produce levelized costs of electricity (LCOEs) that are not competitive in a deregulated market in any case, and which may be competitive in regulated markets under certain optimistic conditions. If the AP1000 is considered as more credit-stressful than the SMR project, the SMR becomes more competitive with the AP1000, but the projects' viability in the wider market remains unchanged. However, in general terms the smaller up-front cost of the SMR makes it a more feasible endeavor for a wider variety of utility companies, increasing the potential customer base for nuclear power generation units.
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2015.; "June 2015." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (pages 44-47).
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZFirst-principles study of the surfaces of zirconium during early stages of metal oxidationhttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103713
First-principles study of the surfaces of zirconium during early stages of metal oxidation
Dinh, Minh A
The surfaces of zirconium during early stages of metal oxidation were examined by first-principles calculations using density functional theory. DFT calculations suggested that the interaction between the oxide and the substrate induced a slight vertical contraction of the oxide film and a slight buckling of the Zr layer in the oxide in which the latter effect was found to be more important. The total effect was significant. In fact, among the three examined configurations, the difference in heights across the oxide surface could reach 0.55 [angstroms] which should be visible under STM images. Therefore, the periodic relaxation patterns observed on the surface of zirconium at the initial stage in of its oxidation in previous study could be explained by the buckling of the zirconium layer in the oxide coupled with the fact that there was a mismatch between Zr metal and ZrO2 oxide lattice parameters. While some atomically-resolved STM images were also generated, more DFT results from different structure configurations are needed before a complete and useful large-scale STM image could be constructed.
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2015.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (pages 31-33).
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZAll-optical method of nanoscale magnetometry for ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamondhttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103712
All-optical method of nanoscale magnetometry for ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond
Lopez, Nicolas A
The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) defect in diamond has shown considerable promise in the field of small scale magnetometry due to its high localization and retention of favorable optical properties at ambient conditions. Current methods of magnetometry with the NV center achieve high sensitivity to fields aligned with the defect axis; however, with most present methods transverse fields are not directly measurable. The all-optical method of NV magnetometry provides a means to detect transverse fields by monitoring changes in the overall fluorescence profile. In this work the all-optical method is extended to ensembles of non-interacting NV centers. By establishing an external bias field aligned with the (1, 1, 1) axis, the magnitude of an unknown transverse field can be unambiguously identified through the measurement of the signal curvature. The angular orientation can be determined up to a two-fold degeneracy by observing the change in signal curvature produced when the bias field is shifted off-axis. The magnetometry method explored in this thesis thus provides good sensitivity to transverse fields, while reducing to a minimum the experimental apparatus required to operate the magnetometer.
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2015.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (pages 61-65).
2015-01-01T00:00:00Z